Meetings of his "S-team" of senior executives begin with participants
quietly absorbing the written word. Specifically, before any discussion
begins, members of the team -- including Bezos -- consume six-page
printed memos in total silence for as long as 30 minutes. (Yes, the
e-ink purveyor prefers paper. Ironic, no?) They scribble notes in the
margins while the authors of the memos wait for Bezos and his minions to
finish reading.

Amazon executives call these documents "narratives," and even Bezos realizes
that for the uninitiated -- and fans of the PowerPoint presentation --
the process is a bit odd. "For new employees, it's a strange initial
experience," he tells Fortune. "They're just not accustomed to
sitting silently in a room and doing study hall with a bunch of
executives." Bezos says the act of communal reading guarantees the
group's undivided attention. Writing a memo is an even more important
skill to master. "Full sentences are harder to write," he says. "They
have verbs. The paragraphs have topic sentences. There is no way to
write a six-page, narratively structured memo and not have clear
thinking."

The use of narratives at Amazon reminds me of this article written many years ago in Harvard Business Review about strategic planning at 3M. The innovative industrial conglomerate had adopted the use of storytelling during its strategic planning. In the article, the authors explained that bullet points on Powerpoint slides have several deficiencies. Bullet point lists often prove rather generic, fail to clarify causal relationships, and leave crucial assumptions unstated. One manager quoted in the article explains, "If you read just bullet points, you may not get it, but if you read a narrative plan, you will. If there's a flaw in the logic, it glares right out at you. With bullets, you don't know if the insights is really there, or if the planner has merely given you a shopping list." Stories or narratives enable you to think more holistically, and they provide the basis for a more thoughtful dialogue and debate. Finally, stories prove much more compelling than lists. If we hope to persuade others that a strategy makes sense, a good story works much more effectively than a set of bullet points.

1 comment:

Thanks Mike. I am absolutely going to use this strategy with my colleagues. My very first manager in this business, and the one who has had the biggest impact on me to date, always asked - do you have a story to tell? Thanks for bringing me back to a great time in my career.Carlin Robinson

Michael Roberto

The Great Courses

About Me

I am the Trustee Professor of Management at Bryant University in Smithfield, RI. I joined the faculty after serving for six years on the faculty at Harvard Business School.

My research, teaching, and consulting focuses on leadership, with a particular emphasis on decision-making and teams. I have published two books based upon my research: Why Great Leaders Don't Take Yes For An Answer (2nd edition to be released in May 2013), and Know What You Don't Know (2009).